What you can learn from the Comcast call from hell

The case for recording your phone calls with customer service

If there is a hell, being stuck on a call like this one with a Comcast customer-service representative would surely be one fitting punishment for those who sinned in life. Ryan Block, vice president of product at AOL and a Comcast customer who wanted to simply disconnect his service, posted a delicious slice of his attempt to disconnect his cable service.

“Why is it that you don’t want the faster speed? Help me understand why you don’t want faster Internet?” the Comcast
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representative asks after Block tells him he wants to drop the service. With cable companies aggressively trying to hold on to customers who want to switch providers or cut the cord altogether, it’s probably not the only time a customer-service representative has fought valiantly (and, yes, infuriatingly) to defy a customer’s stated desire. “My job is to have a conversation with you about keeping your service,” the Comcast employee said. (A spokesman for Comcast apologized for the call and said it’s “not consistent” with how the company trains its staff.)

But the call also stumbles upon a new weapon being deployed by consumers, much to the chagrin of some companies: make the call, record the call and post the call (for the world to hear). By recording conversations with customer-service representatives, frustrated consumers can acquire powerful ammunition to have their way, experts say.

Americans may be resigned to having their phone calls recorded for “quality control” purposes and being told that they may not do the same, if they decide to ask permission. But, experts say, if one party is already recording the phone call, there may be fewer legal reasons for the other party to seek permission to do the same, particularly if recording the call means it’s no longer regarded as confidential.

The Comcast fiasco is, of course, a classic example of why companies don’t want you recording calls. While some customer-service departments and call centers do use the recordings to train employees, what consumers say on the phone could also come back to haunt them later, says Glenn Conley, president and CEO of Metropark Communications Inc., a voice- and data-communications company in St. Louis. Most calls between consumers and customer-service staff are not just recorded for quality control, he says, but archived and used at a later date in case there’s a legal or policy dispute. “It’s more in line with covering what legal issues might arise down the road,” Conley says.

Experts advise customers to do exactly what companies already do, particularly when it comes to dealing with financial companies over mortgages. “I would encourage consumers to record the calls themselves,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at real-estate data firm RealtyTrac. This is particularly important when mortgage servicing companies make promises of loan modifications to consumers. When mortgages are sold from one servicer to another, homeowners may also need to correct errors in their account. Most consumers can save emails and letters but not phone calls. (Also see: “What to do when your mortgage gets resold.”)

The Comcast customer-service representative, it should be noted, appears tame when compared with some whom consumers have grappled with in recent years. During the financial crisis, for instance, there was a spate of cases of consumers who recorded phone calls with threatening debt collectors, who called in the middle of the night and even used abusive language, says Ira Rheingold, executive director and general counsel of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, a nonprofit organization in Washington. Such behavior remains unlawful under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. “We live in a world where there’s a disparity of power,” he says. “Recording phone calls is a powerful tool to hold them accountable.”

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Companies don’t always welcome requests to record calls. John Gill, 75, retired CEO of a consumer-products company based in Osprey, Fla., recently attempted to record two phone calls — to credit-card company American Express and mortgage servicer Seterus Inc. In both cases the companies said they would hang up. “Our policy does not allow customers to record phone calls,” an American Express spokesman, Thomas Sclafani, reports, but customers who don’t want their phone calls recorded can request to talk on a nonrecorded line. Seterus, a unit of International Business Machines Corp.
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didn’t reply to requests for comment, but a customer-service representative there says Seterus doesn’t permit customers to record phone calls.

So why don’t firms want consumers to return the favor? American Express
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has “rigorous processes” in place to safeguard information discussed during customer calls, including account numbers, Sclafani says. “We’d be concerned about the security of that kind of information if we permitted customers to record calls.” Cliff Palefsky, a San Francisco–based employment lawyer, has another theory: “Companies control the tape and only record things that they believe will help or protect them.” In other words, they don’t want consumers producing evidence of staff making important mistakes.

That said, customers only need a smartphone and Internet access to make a point. One recording with Verizon Wireless has over 23,000 views on YouTube. Querying the high cost of his bill while on a vacation in Canada, the consumer asks: “Is there a difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents?” Two customer-service representatives did not see a difference, revealing a lack of understanding of basic math. (Verizon did not reply to requests for comment.) To be fair, other recordings reveal what some customer-service staff endure, like this angry customer who screams, “I am your worst nightmare.” (Warning: The recording contains profanity.)

The good news for consumers: Federal law and most state wiretapping statutes permit recording if one party to the conversation — in this case, you — gives consent, according to the Digital Media Law Project, which is part of Harvard University. In many U.S. states — including New York and Ohio — customers are not legally required to ask permission to record phone calls, although recording people who are based in a state that requires the consent of both parties is a gray area. California and Washington are among states that require two-party consent. (Read more on state-by-state laws here.)

And recording calls has never been easier. Google Voice records incoming calls, and, while Apple doesn’t allow the “voice memo” function to operate on the iPhone during a phone call, placing a call on speaker and recording it with a separate device easily gets around that. What’s more, there are a slew of apps that record phone calls, like “Record My Call,” free for Android phones, and “Secure Speak” ($14.99 a month for 120 minutes), which allows recording on the iPhone by silently merging the call with a recording number and then emailing the recording to the user.

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